MEDHURST (Walter Henry).

Chinese and English Dictionary; Containing all the words in the Chinese Imperial Dictionary, arranged according to the Radicals.

VERY RARE

First edition. 2vols. One of an edition of 600 copies (not stated). Chinese characters printed in lithography. 8vo. Bound in original cloth (vol.1) and half-calf (vol. 2) respectively (minor wear). Vol. 2 with numerous marginal annotations (in red ink) in an elegant Chinese hand. A mixed set. Occasional light foxing and staining, but overall a very good set, preserved in a custom-made leather-backed clamshell box. xxiv, 648, 29; 649-1486, 28pp. Batavia, Printed at Parabattan, October 1842-May, 1843.

£9,500.00

This is overall the second Chinese-English dictionary, printed a couple of decades after Morrison’s ground-braking but somewhat unwieldy ‘Dictionary of the Chinese Language’ which was published between 1815-1823 in six large (and heavy) 4to volumes in Macao.

Medhurst (1796-1857) was trained as a typesetter and printer in London. He joined the London Missionary Society and was sent to Malacca in 1816. His first publication in Batavia was an English-Japanese and Japanese-English Vocabulary which was printed in 1830. Medhurst wanted to publish a smaller and cheaper dictionary that would still include all 47,000 characters in the famous Kangxi dictionary of 1716, which itself remained the most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary until the 20th century.

“Some difficulties have been experienced in getting the present work through the press. The Chinese metallic types, cast at Malacca, are confessedly too large, and in every respect insufficient for such a work, there being only 1500 varieties, while 40,000 were needed. To cut the Chinese characters in wood or metal as required, would have demanded an outlay of more funds than the author could command, or ever expect to be remunerated for… A method has been adopted, which though not exhibiting a page of such beauty and perfection as could be wished, was yet found to answer the purpose of speed, cheapness, and legibility. This method consists in combining the two arts of typography and lithography together. The English words in each sheet, with the sounds of the Chinese characters attached, having first been composed in type, and spaces left for the insertion of Chinese symbols, an impression was taken on what is called transfer paper, upon which the Chinese characters were written by a native with lithographic ink, and the whole turned over on a stone for its reception. The sheet was then worked off, at the lithographic press, and is now presented to the public as a specimen of a new mode of introducing Chinese , or any other strange characters, among Roman letters, where the foreign types are not procurable.” (Preface p. iv).

Medhurst had been trained as a printer and typesetter before joining the London Missionary Society in 1816. He printed this dictionary at his own expense in an edition of 600 copies. The Chinese marginal annotations in vol. 2 give phonetic hints on how to pronounce the characters in the Fuzhou dialect which was the main Chinese language spoken in Indonesia. Cordier, Sinica 1597; Lust 1050.

See also: Su, Ching: The Printing Presses of the London Missionary Society among the Chinese (PhD). University College London. 1996. p. 227-229

Stock No.
256498